Assen WSBK: Rea wins wet-dry race after tyre gamble
Jonathan Rea doubled up in the second World Superbike race at Assen, switching to slicks at the right time in a race that had started under wet conditions.
With rain hitting the track prior to the race, the riders opted to begin the race on the wet compound.
Similarly to yesterday, pole-sitter Tom Sykes was joined by teammate Rea at the front off the line.
However, the Ulsterman quickly dropped back to as low as seventh before starting to recover again.
That allowed the Ducati of Xavi Fores to move up to second behind Sykes but soon both of them lost out to surprise leader Joshua Brookes and the Honda's of Nicky Hayden and Michael van der Mark.
Soon, Rea closed in on the trio and, just after a move on Van der Mark, the reigning champion pitted to change for slicks.
He was soon joined by Sykes and Van der Mark, the former starting to put massive pressure on Rea while the latter rejoinde seven seconds behind.
Brookes, Davies and Hayden, on the other hand, stayed out on wets for further couple of laps and, once they pitted, the massive disadvantage in pace saw them rejoin around half a minute adrift.
While Davies and Hayden settled in for fifth and seventh, sandwiching Alex Lowes, Brookes' race came to a premature end as he crashed out.
Out front, Rea did not put a foot wrong and soon stretched his lead to over a second to take his second victory of the weekend, with Sykes completing a Kawasaki 1-2.
Van der Mark secured his fourth podium of the season as IodaRacing's Lorenzo Savadori repeated his personal-best WSBK result in fourth.
Davies settled for his first non-podium finish in five races in fifth, followed by Hayden and Lowes, the duo switching places during the final laps.
Ducati riders Davide Giugliano, Fores and Leon Camier completed the top 10.
Full results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jonathan Rea |
Kawasaki | |
| 2 | Tom Sykes |
Kawasaki | 2.442 |
| 3 |  Michael van der Mark |
Honda | 15.189 |
| 4 |  Lorenzo Savadori |
Aprilia | 25.507 |
| 5 | Chaz Davies |
Ducati | 30.853 |
| 6 |  Nicky Hayden |
Honda | 36.458 |
| 7 | Alex Lowes |
Yamaha | 39.263 |
| 8 | Davide Giugliano |
Ducati | 46.789 |
| 9 | Leon Camier |
MV Agusta | 1:05.023 |
| 10 |  Xavi Fores |
Ducati | 1:05.468 |
| 11 |  Sylvain Guintoli |
Yamaha | 1:24.948 |
| 12 | Roman Ramos |
Kawasaki | 1:35.035 |
| 13 | Lucas Mahias |
Kawasaki | +1 Lap |
| 14 |  Karel Abraham |
BMW | +1 Lap |
| 15 | Jordi Torres |
BMW | +1 Lap |
| 16 |  Markus Reiterberger |
BMW | +1 Lap |
| 17 | Matthieu Lussiana |
BMW | +1 Lap |
| 18 |  Pawel Szkopek |
Yamaha | +1 Lap |
| 19 |  Peter Sebestyen |
Yamaha | +2 Laps |
| 20 |  Schmitter Dominic |
Kawasaki | +2 Laps |
| R |  Josh Brookes |
BMW | |
| R | Matteo Baiocco |
Ducati | |
| DNS | Josh Hook |
Kawasaki |
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